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At least Charlie Taaffe didn't give his old buddy Doug Berry the finger.

Taaffe, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach, was fuming at the conclusion of Friday night's game when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach sent Troy Westwood out to attempt a 53-yard field goal on the last play of the game.

Winnipeg was leading 36-18 at the time.

Westwood missed, and Taaffe barely looked at Berry when they shook hands at midfield.

Taaffe appeared to almost swat Berry's hand away while voicing his displeasure with the move.

That should make things interesting this Friday night when the East Division-leading Bombers (3-1-1) and Ticats (0-5) complete their home-and-home series at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton.

Berry found himself in Taaffe's shoes last season when his old boss, then Montreal Alouettes head coach Don Matthews, ran up the score against the Bombers in a July game at Canad Inns Stadium.

Berry went for the field goal on Friday because if the Bombers and Ticats split their four-game season series and end up tied in the East Division standings, the tiebreaker is points for and against.

"It's tough to be on the other side, but the bottom line is the CFL came up with this animal, and they scheduled teams four times in the same division," Berry said after the game.

Berry continued to defend his decision yesterday, saying it was a sign of respect.

"I don't know that I understood it for a while last year," Berry admitted. "I finally came to the justification that it was a tribute to our team. It was a sign of respect that they were doing it against us.

"And I would hope that that's the way Hamilton takes it, because I certainly do respect their football team."

"I'll take it," Berry said. "He's demonstrating to the fans and to his teammates ... that we have some strength in the fourth quarter and times when we need to be strong in the fourth quarter."

"To me a good indication of how a quarterback has come along and developed and is one of the guys that a lot of the teams would like to have right now."

LATE HITS: Bomber rookie special teamer David Lowry suffered a quadriceps injury on Friday ... Bombers tailback Charles Roberts, with eight touchdowns in five games, is on pace for 28 this season. The CFL record is 23, which was set by some guy named Stegall ... Berry said LB Toney Edison "won't have quite as much money to go to the movies this week." The practice roster player got the Bomber bench a 15-yard objectionable conduct penalty in the fourth quarter Friday when he threw the ball at Jason Maas. The Hamilton quarterback had flipped the ball at Edison and got his own 15-yard penalty as well.